Loss of Connectional Influence

A point about family and church nurture

Both institutions—the family and the church—have suffered from the loss of multi-generational connectional life and thus, they have seen the diminished influence within their respective spheres for covenantal nurture.

For the household, on one hand, there is the Christian man who gives up too easily as he swims upstream against a family-unfriendly way of life in North America. Work outside the home fragments the family. The current against this man is strong. In this giving up, he abdicates his charge to oversee and direct the nurture of his children. This man has the inclination to turn to the professional specialists of the church who stand in his place regarding household training. This man’s view of the family is weak. On the other hand, there are men who are self-conscious about the biblical mandate regarding household nurture. These men, in the name of a zealous mission to maintain control of their family, have the tendency toward their own kind of isolationism. In a spirit of watchfulness, they can overly isolate their children from both the younger and older generations of the church. This man’s view of the local church is weak.

G. Mark Sumpter